Baltic cruise ports excursion questions

[sjde]

Will we be able to walk right into town from these ports? (We are big walkers)-Copenhagen, Tallin, Helsinki, Skagen, Stockholm, St Petersburg

We prefer to do things independently-just stroll the town, eat, shop, people-watch. Are there some ports we'd be well-advised to take a tour? Probably St Petersburg for sure?

[Giantfan13]

Will we be able to walk right into town from these ports? (We are big walkers)-Copenhagen, Tallin, Helsinki, Skagen, Stockholm, St Petersburg

We prefer to do things independently-just stroll the town, eat, shop, people-watch. Are there some ports we'd be well-advised to take a tour? Probably St Petersburg for sure?

 

Copenhagen--probably. Most ships dock at Langeline and from there most of the sights are in a compact 2 mile radius.

Stockholm--again, depending upon where the ship docks, as there are 3 place it could tie up. One is right in town, second you will need some sort of transportation to get to most of the sights and the third is an hour out side of Stockholm. You can check in advance where your ship docks ands take it from there.

Helsinki, most likely you will need a bus or taxi to get you t o the main areas of the city. It is walkable, but most passengers opt for the bus, or the cruise line may provide a shuttle.

Tallinn-Very easy walk t o the main part of the city. All ships dock in t he same place and just follow the blue path. About a 10 minute walk.

St Petersburg--You cannot get off the ship unless you have a visa to enter Russia. There is no way around this. You r options are to book an excursion thru the ship, or with any of the several very good private tour companies. They supply you with a temporary visa, but you must remain with the tour group as they are responsible for you. Check t he board here as there are many threads about the tour companies in St Petersburg. Most here have done the private tours, for many reasons. Read a bit an you will see why.

In retrospect, you can do all the ports on your own, but some do require transportation. The money you save that way, you can use for your visit to St Petersburg.

Cheers

Len

[sjde]

If we get a visa ahead of time and on the 2nd day don't want to take a tour, are there things to see right off the ship?

[sjde]

After doing more research I see a 2 day tour is the way to go. But do any offer some free time to explore on your own?

 

Our ship's 2 day tour is $219 but one post Ibread said a private one might be only 60% of that?

[nycfa]

You can get your own Russian Visa but they are expensive and you have to do a lot of work to get one.

 

I believe they are currently around $300 per person?

[ljandgb]

From my experience, across 3 different cruise lines, privately arranged excursions cost less (sometimes significantly so) than ship ones, or cost the same but for a much smaller group, more sites, longer tour, more flexibility, etc. This board, and TripAdvisor, are your friends. :)

 

On a tour in SPB, you will not be able to truly "explore on your own." Some guides are a bit more hands off than others, letting you stroll around a shopping area and meeting back up with you after a bit. We had dinner out in town without our guide, though our driver was waiting for us outside (supposedly - I didn't actually check to see that he stayed.)

[sjde]

Is the Hermitage the same as Catherine Palace?

[trosebery]

Is the Hermitage the same as Catherine Palace?

 

No, the Hermitage aka the Winter Palace is in St. Petersburg itself. Catherine Palace is in Pushkin, about 30 km away.

 

ETA And Peterhof (with its magnificent fountains) is another palace complex that is also outside of St. Petersburg. The tsars had lots of palaces.

[ljandgb]

The Hermitage was built for Catherine to admire her artwork by herself. It is attached to one of her city palaces. Easy to confuse them!

[kitkat343]

We visited Copenhagen, Tallin, Helsinki, and Stockholm independently quite easily, and we had a 3 year old in tow. It is possible, but expensive and a little logistically challenging to visit St. Petersburg without a guide or tour, but a private tour or ship tour will enable you to get a visa waiver and usually include all museum entrance fees and transportation. For our family, our son was free on the private tour and would have needed a visa so it was quite a bit cheaper to have a tour for our family than to visit independently.